


Broken Together

by madisonsharon



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:01:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 17,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22116793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madisonsharon/pseuds/madisonsharon
Summary: When a group of teenagers play a prank on Hannah Washington, she gets upset and runs into the bone-chilling, never-ending forest on her parents' mountain. But, she wasn't alone. Her sister, Beth Washington runs after her only to be never seen again...until one year later.
Relationships: Ashley Brown/Chris Hartley, Beth Washington & Hannah Washington & Josh Washington, Emily Davis/Matt Taylor (Until Dawn), Emily Davis/Mike Munroe, Josh Washington/Reader, Mike Munroe/Jessica Riley
Kudos: 32





	1. Proloogue

I was with the Washington's, Ashley, Chris, Mike, Emily, Matt, Jessica, and Sam for the annual winter getaway. We had all been a little drunk, but nobody was as drunk as the eldest Washington and Chris. Josh Washington was my boyfriend of two years. We had gotten together during our senior year of high school and hit it off immediately. I definitely wish I could have gotten together sooner, but I was happy to say the least.

They had been passed out since a little after one or two in the morning. So, they had no clue what was going down. And it was...not good.

Beth was doing some dishes while Sam and I were on the couch scrolling through our Instagram feeds. Sam was my best friend. We had been besties since the first grade when we were forced to be reading partners. I didn't know how truly sweet she was until then. But boy was I glad she was by my side.

Emily walks in the room along with Jessica and Mike. Sam and I stand up from the couch and begin to walk towards them, slightly curious as to what they were all doing whispering.

Emily speaks up but still is in a hushed whisper, "Oh my god! I can't believe you actually did this!" Quietly freaking out. What in the world is she talking about? Emily and I were friends but not as close as Sam and I were. She definitely could be a total bitch sometimes.

"Don't you guys think this is a little bit cruel?" Sam asks, looking directly at Jessica, with concern for the unsuspecting Hannah Washington. A part of me wanted to find Hannah before all of this went down. A part of me just wanted to go to bed and sleep. But, for some stupid reason, I don't do anything. Instead, I go grab Josh and help him walk to his bedroom. But, before I did that...

"Oh come on, she deserves it." Jessica tries to get Sam and I on board. I don't want to get involved in anything, so I simply stay silent.

"It's not her fault she has a huge crush on Mike -" Sam attempts to reason with Jess, but Jess is very stubborn and hard headed and there was no getting through to her.

"Hannah's been making moves on him," Jessica points at Emily before continuing, "I'm just looking out for my girl Em." Jess walks away happily and Sam and I just look at each other, unsure of what to do. I just walk towards Josh and help him up to his room. Completely ignorant as to what was happening to Hannah. I just hoped she'd be okay.

I hear Emily speak as I walk up the stairs, "Just because he's class Prez doesn't mean he belongs to everyone. Mike is my man!" Emily says, following right behind Jess only to be interrupted by Mike himself.

"Hey, Em. I'm not anybody's man." Mike tries to stand up for himself, but fails.

"Whatever you say, Darling!" Emily sings, making me sigh in annoyance. Emily always was the most annoying person, but part of me still wanted to be her friend regardless. I guess that's just the type of person I am; always trying to be everyone's friend.

I hear voices coming from the guest room and footsteps, so I get out of Josh's room and head in that direction. By the time I got there, Hannah had already ran out of the room with tears in her eyes and her arms crossed in front of her like she was trying to hide something.

Out of curiosity and anger, I barge into the guest room to find everyone in there. I was shocked, and Sam finally speaks up. Just as angrily as I am.

"You guys are jerks! You know that?" Sam says before angrily storming out of the room, "HANNAH!"

I speak up before also storming out, "What the FUCK were all of you thinking?" I yell, and follow in Sam's footsteps. I was worried about Hannah. I wanted to go wake Josh up, but he was wasted. Even if he did wake up, he'd be really out of it. I didn't have time to help him get sober right now. Right now, I had to find his sister. Before she did anything stupid.

All of us chase after Sam and run outside the lodge. It was absolutely freezing outside. It made me very worried for Hannah's safety. I understand how she must be feeling but, would you really run out into negative three degree weather with no coat on?

Sam yells for her, but gets no response. I feel Beth push us all out of the way, before getting extremely upset.

"What's going on? Where's my sister going?" Beth asks everyone worriedly. I honestly felt really bad, even though I wasn't a part of the prank. I still knew about it and yet I did didly fucking squat to stop it.

"Ugh, it's fine...she just can't take a joke..." Jessica sighs, trying to justify her actions. But Beth saw right through it.

To make matters worse, Emily takes Jessica's side and yells, "It was just a prank, Han!" Emily quickly earns the attention of Beth.

Beth's face begins to turn a furious red, "What did you do?" Beth looks around at everyone like she hates us. And honestly...I don't blame her.

"We were just messing around Beth, it wasn't serious." Mike tries to calm Beth down but Beth just retaliates.

"You JERKS!" Beth yells before starting to look for Hannah, "Hannah! HANNAH!" Beth begins to run into the cold, isolated mountains. The was the last time anyone had seen the Washington twins...


	2. Memento Mori

I sit next to Sam, on a bus that is heading towards the Washington's mountain. I look over at Sam who has her earbuds in and is tuning everything else out.

It has been a whole year since Hannah and Beth went missing. There's been a debate about whether or not they could have survived. To me, I think that they got lost. I mean, who wouldn't get lost on a mountain that big? There's too many trees and too many cliffs to count.

The bus comes to a soft halt before the door opens. Sam and I gather our things and get off the bus. The sign at the stop reads, "Blackwood Pines" just like it always has. I take a deep breath before following behind Sam up to the lodge. It was going to be one long weekend.

As we were walking, Sam and I hear faint footsteps from behind us. Making us both turn around and begin to walk slightly faster.

"Hello?" Sam yells, trying to figure out who's following us if there even was anyone following us.

"Is someone there?" I ask, standing still for a second to see if I could hear anymore footsteps. I couldn't hear anything and neither could Sam, so we kept walking.

"I'm sure it's nothing, Isabella." Sam tries to reassure me, I nod and continue to walk. I didn't know why, but I felt as if someone was watching me. Not supernaturally, but like if someone were spying on me. I hated the feeling and got in front of Sam. She doesn't ask questions and keeps walking right behind me.

I check my watch and it says it's 9:02 am. I look up and we arrive at a large, black gate. Sam and I walk towards the gate, only to find a note on it.

A note that reads, "The gates busted. Climb over!  
-Chris." Sam sighs and tries to open the gate. Which doesn't work.

"Jesus. Never mind." Sam says as she spots a wall that's easy to climb over. I look at her, and she just smiles.

"You want me to climb that? You're funny." I laugh at her, but she just ignores me and climbs the wall with no problem. Ugh, athleticism is something I don't have.

We keep walking and find the most adorable little squirrel just walking right in front of us. I had to keep myself from making any noise, as not to scare the poor creature away. Sam gave it an acorn and then it ran away. I giggled and we stumbled upon a large board that talked about supposed fortune-telling totems. Sam and gave each other the 'that's-bullshit' look before walking away. It was cool, but probably not true. I saw one of them right next to the sign, just lying on the ground. So, I carefully picked it up.

My vision turned to black and showed a black crow flying onto a snow covered table and then flying away. I could have swore that I saw Mike, but I quickly brushed it off. Still, something seemed...off.

We were right up on the cable car station. How convenient? There was a chilling breeze in the air, brushing across my face, making me shiver.

I walk towards the fence on the other side and saw the beautiful, snow covered mountains. To my left, there was a map of the mountain but there was something written in red paint. I motioned for Sam to come take a look.

"The past is beyond our control? What the hell does that mean?" I ask her, pointing at the odd sign. She investigates it first before saying anything.

"Wow. Graffiti all the way up here?" Sam says, continuing to examine the sign. Something seemed weird about the whole thing. This didn't feel...safe.

I looked to my right and saw Chris' backpack but no Chris anywhere. There weren't even footprints in the snow.

"Your bag's here, where are you?" Sam says, looking around to find out where he is, "You're not in the bag are you?" She laughs, making me laugh too. Before she could get too far, his phone begins to buzz. At first it scares me, but then I brush it off.

"Hello, what do we have here?" Sam says mischievously. I decide to step up and ask her to respect Chris' privacy. I know how it feels to be exposed. It's not a good feeling.

"Hey, don't do that. Would you want someone looking through your shit?" I ask, as she zips up the backpack, putting his phone back where she found it. I smiled as I saw Chris walking up behind Sam.

"Hey guys!" Chris says, jumping out from behind Sam. Sam gasps and then realizes it was just Chris. She playfully hits him and he laughs too.

"Oh! So, I found something kinda amazing." Chris says, walking over to his backpack and throwing it over his shoulder to carry it.

"What?" Sam asks out of curiosity, following behind Chris as I follow behind Sam.

"I'm not gonna tell you, you gotta see for yourself. Come on, it's this way." He replies, as he begins to walk behind the station.

"Where?" I ask, kinda worn out from the long bus ride to get here.

"Right around here. Gonna blow your mind!" He says as he motions to his head. I laugh and continue to follow behind Sam.

Along the way, I find a 'WANTED' poster with the name 'Milgram, Victor' on it. Suddenly, I'm much more nervous to get to the lodge. I didn't want to be out in the cold while a possible murderer or kidnapper was on the loose. I mean, who wants to die like that?

I'm shocked as he has a shotgun laying on a table right in front of us. Which only intensified my anxiety by a million.

"Ta dah! Pretty rad, right?" Chris says, showing off the shotgun and the mini-shooting range set-up.

"Yeah..." Sam says, sarcastically. Which only make Chris want to show off even more.

"Come on! Look at these beauties!" Chris says, trying to convince Sam to enjoy the gun and the range.

"Ugh, 'beauties' is not the word that comes to mind. Why is this even here?" Sam question Chris, as he nods and begins to speak.

"What do you mean?" Chris asks, looking the gun up and down like one of those guys who is obsessed with guns.

"What the hell is a shooting range doing at the base of a ski lodge?" Sam asks, trying to get Chris to think more rationally. I just sigh, and watch the conversation unfold.

"Dude, have you ever met Josh's dad?" Chris asks, and I step forward.

"Yes, actually. I have. He's my boyfriend's dad. I would watch what you say." I tell him, looking him directly in the eyes to make sure he knows that I'm dead serious.

"Alright...well. Here goes nothin'." He says, picking up the shotgun and aiming it. I watch him closely, as guns are dangerous and he's not really trained.

He aims and successfully hits the bag. I don't say anything but I guess he's okay with a gun. Maybe he does know what he's doing.

One shot leads to two and then another. Until, a squirrel crawls up on top of a barrel. My heart stops for a second in hopes that Chris has half a heart and doesn't shoot the squirrel. That very squirrel could be the one Sam and I had seen earlier. I didn't want it to die like this. It was cruel.

"Chris..." I say in a whisper, hoping he wouldn't shoot. After a couple of seconds, he ends up shooting another beer bottle. I released the deep breath I had been holding in and smiled in relief.

"Nice shot." Sam says, looking over at Chris, making me laugh.

"Your ass just got SACKED!" Chris says, doing his 'victory dance' which isn't exactly a good one. Making Sam and I silently cringe.

The sound of the cable car coming towards us, makes us get our stuff and head to the cable car.

"Hey, sharp shooter, our ride is coming." Sam says, making us all follow behind her. We all get into the cable car and begin our journey back up to the lodge.

"Man, it is...it's definitely weird coming back up here after a whole year." Chris says, looking down at his hands. I can't help but feel the same. Should I be the least bit worried about easily Josh is coming back up here after his own sisters went missing? I want to think he's doing okay, but I'm not so sure myself.

Sam and Chris have a whole conversation but I just close my eyes and enter my mind. There are so many thoughts going around in my head. I don't know how everything is going to go this weekend. I do have something I need to tell Josh and I'm not quite sure how he's going to react. I do know he has been seeing a physiatrist, but I don't know if he's ready to hear this kind of news. I can only hope and pray that everything somehow works out.

Soon enough, the cable car comes to a stop and we all begin to hike up to the lodge. It was going to be a long weekend...


	3. Jealousy

I sit beside Ashley and Matt on the steps of the lodge. Not because I wanted to, but because we were waiting on Chris and Josh to get the damn door open and let us all in. It was freezing outside and felt as if I was slowly turning into an ice cube. I didn't like that feeling and I'm pretty sure that nobody else did either.

"Hey guys!" Josh says, smiling and waving his hand in the air, "and hey beautiful." Josh walks towards me and I stand up to hug him back. We kiss and then Chris jumps in, making us laugh.

"Everyone make it here okay?" Josh asks everyone, Ashley being the only person to actually answer.

"Well, more or less. But it's good to see you!" Ashley says happily, still holding her legs together. It really is freezing out here.

Matt is holding his arms in front of his chest and is looking away from everyone like he's upset. I didn't ask him what was wrong because he looked so agitated and I didn't want to make anything worse.

Josh took notice and was walking with Chris when he asked, "What's up with him?" I hear Chris answer as they walk away, but I couldn't exactly make it out. Instead, I sat and waited until they got us inside to speak with Josh. I was very nervous and still unsure if I should even tell him. But it was eating at me. I needed to tell him. He deserved to know. Besides, I don't know what to do and I don't want to make a decision without him. This was too important. I couldn't be selfish anymore.

I was standing with Ashley and Sam when Ash decides to yell at Chris, "We're freezing our buns off out here!"

"She has a point you know!" I yell, trying to warm myself up by moving around. I see Chris trying to unfreeze the doorknob to open it from the inside. He opens the door and begins to act likes he's all that and a bag of chips.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week!" He says, as he bows in front of us, making Ashley giggle like a little girl. Sam and I knew she had a huge crush on Chris but for some reason she wouldn't tell him or even act on it. I didn't know why she just wouldn't tell him, I mean if she really liked him she probably would have already asked him if he liked her.

But before anyone could move, a huge wolf jumped out from behind Chris and ran outside of the lodge. We were all very scared but then laughed it off just as easily.

"Crap that thing freaked me out." Chris says, trying to catch his breath and calm down. Sam and I just continued to laugh at him, making turn red as a tomato in front of Ashley.

"What was it? Are you okay?" Ashley asks him, still laughing from him jumping. He sighs and looks at the ground for a second in defeat.

"It was like a bear o-or a tiger or something!" Chris tries to explain. Clearly he has no common sense. I mean a damn tiger? In Michigan? The fuck is he thinking?

"In what world does that make any sense?" I ask him, laughing at him for having no education.

"I-uh. I dunno..." He says, laughing and scratching the back of his neck. After a couple of seconds, we all walk into the lodge to hopefully get warm, it was fucking cold outside.

"I'll get a fire going." Josh says, getting to the fireplace as quickly as he can to warm the place up. I was still very anxious to tell him. It seemed like time was getting away. I wanted to tell him and give him to time to think it over.

"Hey, whenever you have a second, can I talk to you about something? You know, in private?" I ask him, whispering in his ear. He looks at me a little concerned, but then smiles.

"Of course, just let me get this fire started." He says, and continues to light the fire. I sit on the couch and try to find a way to entertain myself for a few minutes. More like trying to find a way to take my mind off of what I'm going to tell him.

"What's up party people!" Mike comes in, yelling happily with his hands up in the air. Looks like he's in an awful good mood. Mike and I aren't really close, the only real reason we know each other is because I'm dating Josh and they're close. Not as close as Josh and Chris but a close friend.

"Hey!" Jess says, just as excitedly as Mike sounded. I look over at Matt and he immediately looks up at Mike like he wanted to kill him. I get up and go to Matt, something just felt wrong.

"Make yourself at home, bro." Josh chimes in, trying to be a good host.

"Will do." Mike says, walking towards to the couch and nods his head back at Josh.

"Come on in. Take a load off. Have whatever you want. You just take whatever you want anyway, right?" Matt says, angrily. Although, I'm not sure why. Why the hell would Matt be mad at Mike? Matt was not the type to get that defensive over nothing. There had to be something going on that nobody knew about.

"Woah, easy there cowboy." Mike says, trying to keep from getting into a fight with Matt. After all, Matt was the starring quarterback for the football team, he was a pretty strong guy. Then again, Mike worked out too, he was a tough guy.

"What the hell were you doing with Em out on the trail, huh?" Matt challenges, making Mike furrow his brow for a second before defending himself and Emily. I understand now why Matt is mad.

"Hey! Let's not do this right now, okay?" I stand up from my seat and get in between them.

"Then when should we do this, Bella? He kissed my girlfriend!" Matt argues with me, but I'm on his side.

"I know, I'm on your side. Dude, you have to chill first, okay? I'll take care of this." I say, reassuring him. I look over at Mike and see Jess beside him.

"Mike, what happened? Be honest or so help me god-"

"Nothing! I don't know what he thinks he saw, but it's not true." Mike says, trying his best to convince me otherwise. If we was lying, he was doing a damn good job.

"Okay, well. Can you guys just agree to not kiss each other's girlfriends. Is that do-able?" I ask, looking at both of them. Mike nods and then so does Matt.

"Problem solved! Now, was that so hard?" I ask them both, smiling as I successfully put my hands on my hips. For a second, I wasn't scared, nervous or at all worried about my current situation. I was happy. But, I see Josh and he smiles at me. Maybe everything was going to be okay. But, still I didn't know if I could tell him the secret. Maybe he didn't need to know...

"Okay, I'm going to go take a bath." Sam says, before heading upstairs. I nod and smile up at her. I look back at Josh, and he smiles and puts a hand out in front of me. I grab it and he pulls me closer. I could feel his hot breath on my neck, and he had one hand in mine and the other on my hip. I was still nervous, but he managed to take my mind off of it all. For that, I owed him something, a kiss.

I pulled him close, and planted a kiss on his lips. The kiss seemed to make everything stop. Time. Everyone. Everything.

"Ahem." I hear Sam cough, and wait for us to look at her.

"There isn't any hot water..." She says, looking down at the floor, like there was something interesting down there. Way to ruin the moment, Sam.


	4. Isolation

Josh had said he was going with Chris and Ashley to do something together, but I didn't really want to be alone. So, I decided to tag along. I had no idea what Chris and Ash had in mind.

"So, it says here," Chris starts, "To communicate with the spirit world, you must free your mind of all preconceptions, drop all inhibitions, and generally give yourself over entirely to the will of others, sublimating your every desire to the whims of the 'Spirit-master' which is me-" Chris plays, Ashley cuts him off before he can continue. I don't say anything, but I listen.

"It doesn't say that-" Ashley retaliates, only to be cut off in return by Chris. It was so damn obvious that they had feelings for each other. I wish they would just act on it already!

"And all present will remove their garments at my sole discretion-" Chris continues the joke, but this time Josh cuts him off.

We were all sitting around a table that had a 'spirit board' on it. I was very skeptical of the whole thing, but I still went along with it anyway.

"Chris, come on. This is serious." Josh tries to chill Chris out. And successfully does so.

"Oh, I'm deadly serious." Chris continues to joke, trying to sound funny and laughing. Nobody really laughs, but they give him the 'can-you-please-shut-the-fuck-up' look and he stops playing around.

"Oh shush it. Let's try this, please." Ashley says, getting everyone ready to start.

"Yes, please." Josh pleads, and everyone adjusts themselves to start the game.

"Okay. Is anyone there?" Ashley asks, everyone putting their fingers on the board. I was nervous about the whole thing, not because I was scared, but because of Josh. I didn't know what kind of mindset he's in right now, especially since we're back at the lodge.

After a prolonged silence, the board piece begins to move, sending chills down my spine. What the hell? Somebody has got to be moving it, I mean, ghosts aren't real...right?

"Who's doing that?" I ask everyone, as the piece continues to move. It moves towards letter 'h' and then 'e' and then spells out the word 'help' and I'm shaking in my seat.

"Help?" Ashley asks, concerned and confused about the whole situation. Who needs help? How do we even help a ghost? This cannot be real, it's gotta be fake.

"How are we supposed to help?" Chris asks, genuinely curious as to how the hell we are supposed to help someone who may not even exist to begin with.

"I don't know. What does it mean?" Ashley looks at Chris, trying to find some sort of answer. We all have each other worried looks and I wanted to just quit. But, I knew it didn't work like that. So, I kept playing.

"We need to know who it is if we're supposed to help them." Chris puts out there, and it's actually a good idea. Maybe someone really does need our help. I'm just worried about who it might be...

"Who are you?" Ashley asks, and the piece begins to move again. I never thought that I would be in this kind of situation.

The piece begins to spell the word 'sister' out. Josh and I exchange a look and I immediately know who it might be trying to contact us; his sisters.

"Whose sister?" Josh asks, starting to breathe heavily, and I could tell he was getting progressively angrier. I had no idea how he was going to react to this. Hell, I didn't even know how to react to this.

"Oh, come on! Is this for real?" Chris asks, sighing and Josh almost immediately tells him to shut up. I don't want Josh to be mad at me, so I stay out of it to the best of my ability.

"Josh...it's...it's gotta be-" Josh cuts Ashley off. I begin to become extremely worried about Josh and his mental state. When his sisters went missing, he was in pieces and it made a complete mess out of him. It took him a long time to even be able to talk about them without crying or having a breakdown.

"Yeah? Okay, well...which sister is it then?" Josh asks, calming down enough to speak low. I wasn't quite sure how he was managing to keep it together so well.

"Hannah, is that you?" Ashley asks, clearly terrified of what the answer might be. Even though I had absolutely nothing to do with the prank, I can't help but feel somewhat responsible for what happened to Hannah.

The piece on the board begins to move to the top left corner which read 'yes.' My heart stops. If this was some kind of sick joke, it definitely wasn't funny. At all.

"Oh my god..." Ashley says, almost in a hushed whisper. I look at her with the most saddening look on my face. The harsh reality was a tragic one. Maybe we could find out how they...died. That word is such a harsh, terrible word. It was too final.

"Josh, are you..." Ashley asks, and I look over to Josh. I was worried, and I didn't know how well he was going to be able to cope with something like this. It was like ripping open an old wound. He had been through so much therapy to be okay for a while and I didn't want him to relapse and do something ridiculous.

"I'm fine. I just...want to hear what it says." Josh says, maintaining eye contact with me. I lessen my worry and continue on with the 'game' that had became so real.

Every now and then I would check on him to make sure he really was okay. He seemed calm and collected, but you'd be surprised at how easy it is to fake a smile.

"Think about it," Chris states, "if this is actually Hannah, I mean, we can find out what really happened that night..." Ashley looks at Josh before speaking.

"Josh?" He just nods and looks as ready as ever to get on with the 'game.'

"I can handle it." He says, and everyone gets ready to finish the game. I keep an eye on anything looking too suspicious, but nothing really caught my attention.

"Hannah, if you can hear this...like really hear this. We all want to apologize for what happened." Ashely states, I could tell how truly sorry she was for being involved in the whole thing.

"I-It was stupid and mean and we're sorry." Chris adds in, but I'm not so sure why. I mean, he was piss drunk when the prank went down...so why is he apologizing?

"We're so sorry, Hannah..." Ashley says, apologizing one last time before diving in to find out what actually happened that night.

The board piece begins to come back to life and spell the word 'betrayed.' We all look at each other, confused and curious.

"What does this mean?" I ask, but nobody seemed to know the answer either, so I just kept my eyes on the moving piece. Which then began to spell the word 'killed.' At that point, we were all scared shitless and this all seemed too real.

"WE DIDN'T KILL THEM, IT WAS JUST A PRANK!" Ashley yells, and begins to freak out and breathe heavily. I hadn't seen her that scared since they announced that the twins had gone missing.

"Ash, just calm down. Okay? We need to find out more!" Chris attempts to console and calm down the hysterical Ashley, but fails.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" Ashley sobs, and I can't help but feel sorry for her for feeling the way she does. But, a part of me is not feeling anything for her because she was a part of a ridiculous prank that got Hannah and Beth both killed. How could I disrespect and disregard Hannah and Beth? It wasn't like they were here to defend themselves. I didn't know which part of me to listen to.

"How did you die? Hannah, what happened to you?" Ashley asks, everyone gets dead silent. She could have just froze to death in the snow, or she could have been lost in the mountain somewhere and got trapped or she could have fell from somewhere and gotten herself killed along with her sister. There were too many possibilities as to what could have happened.

I was inside of my own head, when Josh stood up angrily. I didn't know what was going on. All I was thinking about was Hannah. The poor girl probably died a slow, agonizing death because of some immature prank.

"You know what? No, this is bullshit. This isn't real-" Josh says, clearly looking a mixture of upset and pissed. I watched as he got angrier.

"Josh...I don't know what's going on!" Ashley says, trying to get him to sit down and calm down before he does something reckless.

"Listen...I don't know if you think messing with me is somehow going to help me deal with my grief or whatever, but this is not cool!" Josh states sternly, before getting ready to storm out of the room. I didn't know if I should go after him, or let him cool down.

Chris and Ashley try to get him to calm down and come back and sit, but he only retaliates and gets angrier.

"I don't need this right now, okay? You guys are full of it!" Josh yells, as he darts out of the room. I didn't blame him. This was all too much to take in all at once.

"Should we go after him?" Ashley asks Chris and I, and I stand up.

"No, you guys stay here. I'll go talk to him." I say, before heading out the door to find out where he's going. I didn't know what the hell I was getting myself into...


	5. Loyalty

I had been looking for Josh for almost an entire hour. I don't know where he was or what he was doing. I wasn't sure what he could be doing. All I could do was hope it wasn't anything that could get him killed.

I was getting ready to walk into the kitchen and dining room area when I saw Chris lying on the floor. He looked like he had been knocked unconscious. I was extremely worried, and had no idea what was going on.

"Chris? Are you okay? What the fuck happened?!" I ask him, helping him stand up. He looked like he had been hit with something in the head very hard. There was a huge black bruise on his forehead with blood dripping from the open wound. It was fresh, very fresh.

"Y-yeah. I'm okay, but he took Ashley and I don't know where he took her!" Chris says, starting to freak out. Who was 'he' in the first place? Who would have taken Ashley?

"Who's he? What are you talking about?" I ask him, still shocked and confused as to what the actual fuck he was saying.

"The maniac! He knocked Ashley out and then me out and then he took her away before I woke up!" What the hell? There's a maniac? I do remember seeing a 'WANTED' poster on the cable car station. What if it was that Victor Milgram guy? My heart started to beat faster and I swallow loudly.

"You don't think it's that Victor dude? The one on that wanted poster we found earlier?" I ask him, seeing if he can even remember the poster. I know I do, but I wasn't sure if he would. Chris looks at the ground for a second, clearly thinking about the possibility of such happening.

"I don't think it's too far fetched." He say, and we begin to look for Ashley. I checked upstairs and he check downstairs but there was no trace of Ashley. Other than the blood-stained pouch that had Ashley's name on it.

"Hey Bel! I think I found something! You're going to want to see this!" I hear Chris yell, so I immediately make my way downstairs to meet with him.

I walk closer to him and see him holding a bloody bag with 'Ash' written on the front. I froze. There was a lot of blood on it, like an amount that could kill someone. If you lost that much blood, you'd probably be dead by now. I didn't want to share my medical knowledge with Chris because I didn't want to freak him out. I figured it was something I should keep to myself for now.

We are led outside the lodge and into some sort of shed it looks like. I hadn't ever really gone to the shed but maybe one time. Usually, Josh took care of that stuff. But, this time it was important. Some murderer could be seriously hurting Ashley, so I made sure to have a weapon handy. All I had was a hammer from one of the drawers in the kitchen. I'm not sure why the Washington's would have a hammer in the kitchen, but I knew it could give us the upper hand against the attacker.

What we came across was a total nightmare; Josh and Ashley were both tied up against a wood wall and there was a huge saw ready to tear right into them. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't let Josh die like this, I had to save him. He doesn't even know the secret that I hadn't had a chance to tell him. He had to find out first, I couldn't let him die not knowing. It would be the worst thing I ever did.

"CHRIS!" I hear a faint scream coming from Ashley. She was awake, and as far as I could tell, Josh wasn't. I began to shake at the thought of Josh already being dead.

"JOSH?" I yell, hoping to get him attention or at least wake him up. That is, if he's even alive...

"Ash, I'm here! Are you okay? What the hell happened?" Chris asks Ash, and she explains what happened to her. It was like she didn't know Josh was even there. This all was really weird and scary and Chris and I didn't know to get them both out alive.

"Hello. And thank you all for joining me. Tonight we're going to conduct a little experiment. A sort of test. Now for this experiment, we'll need the cooperation of our two test subjects...Joshua and Ashley." A voice says over some sort of intercom. What the fuck was this?

"OH MY GOD! JOSH ARE YOU OKAY?" I yell, trying to get some sort of reaction to see if he was alright or not. I was praying so hard, and I could hear my heartbeat in my ears.

"WHAT THE HELL!" Ashley screams, trying to get the maniac to stop what he's doing. I didn't know who could have gotten up here without the Washington's say so. They didn't let anyone come up here other than the Washington's themselves. Now, I see why.

"But, we're going to need one more brave participant to help decide...which subject will live, and which subject will die." I look over at Chris, who's looking as dumbfounded as I do. I was breathless and I couldn't think about anything but Josh's safety and the secret. It was eating away at me.

"OH NO! MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH GOD! CHRIS! GET US OUT OF HERE!" Ashley shouts at the top of her lungs, making me more nervous and anxious to get them as far away from here as possible.

"NO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS! LET ME DOWN FROM HERE YOU MANIAC!" I hear Josh yell, making me happy to know that he's still alive and breathing. But, my heart sinks when I hear what the maniac says next.

"Please. Please, please, everyone calm down." The maniac says, trying to get all of us to calm down, "Christopher, you will find a lever placed directly in front of you. All you have to do..is chose who you will save!" The way the maniac spoke was sickening. He loved watching our pain and suffering. He loathed in it. It was absolutely disgusting.

The saw had started to turn and made me stomach turn in ways I never though possible. I had a feeling that Chris would save Ashley and I knew he would want to save Josh. But, I don't think he was going to be able to save them both without getting himself killed in the process. It was heartbreaking to watch him have to solve this difficult dilemma all alone.

"Oh no...please. This cannot be happening. OH GOD!" Ashley pleads, sobbing through her words. She was absolutely terrified at what was going to happen. I was worried for them both. I loved Ash like a sister, but Josh. Josh was my boyfriend and I loved him and wanted to be with him forever. He was everything to me. I didn't know what I would do without him. Especially since I hadn't told him the secret yet. But at this point, I don't know if I ever will...

"Oh shit! NO!" Josh yells, and for a moment he looks me right in the eyes, and I start balling. I can't lose him, he's all I have.

"Okay, okay, okay. It's gonna be okay..." Josh says to calm Ashley and himself down. But, he only makes them both twice as nervous. My heart was beating out of my chest.

"Oh shit..." Chris repeats over and over and I can tell that this is probably the most important decision he's ever going to have to make in his life. I know he was shaking, and I was too. This seemed too real to be real, you know?

"Dude, buddy! Let's just think about this for a minute." Josh says, pleading to Chris to save him. I wanted to pull the lever myself to save him, but I knew that Chris had to be the one to make the choice.

"Oh my GOD! CHRIS, you can't let me DIE!" Ashley screams and begins to cry. The whole thing was hard to watch and it seemed to never end. I wanted to scream myself, but that wouldn't make the situation any better.

"Just, just give me a second...I can't think s-straight..." Chris says, pacing and grabbing his head. He looked like he was slowly going crazy. He looked like he was about to cry.

"Ashley, I'll get you out of this! I won't let you die!" Chris yells to Ashley and my heart breaks in two. I begin to sob uncontrollably and lose my shit. What the fuck? How could he kill Josh like that?

"NO! JOSH! I LOVE YOU!" I yell, hoping he can hear me over all the screams erupting from the room. I can't see anything because of the tears swelling in my eyes.

"Oh god! Thank you!" Ashley says, stopping herself from sobbing so hard, only to look to her right and see Josh getting ready to be sawed in half.

"NO!!" I scream, trying to find a way to turn the damn saw off. Unsuccessful, I hear Josh yelling as loud as he can. The sound of his insides getting chopped into tiny pieces made me sick. I couldn't grasp what had just happened.

"No...don't look Ashley. Don't look." Chris says, looking at Ashley whose covered in blood. Josh's blood. He was dead. I didn't know how to react. I was completely frozen. What was I supposed to do now? With the secret? Was I going to keep it?

"Why can't I look, Chris? Please tell me he's okay!" Ashley asks Chris, but we both knew that he was gone. There was no saving him.

Chris and I make our way down to untie Ash and I walk to Josh and rub his face, surprising still warm.

"I'm so sorry, Josh. If it were my choice, I would've saved you. I love you." I say, kissing his cheek. I wipe my tears and follow behind Chris and a sobbing mess of Ashley.

By the time we were outside, we saw Matt and Emily calmly walking to the shed. Why? I had no fucking idea.

"Chris?" I hear Matt ask, Emily and Matt froze. Clearly curious and worried as to why the hell Ash is covered in blood.

"Ashley! Bella?" Matt continues, we keep walking towards them. I was still in shock seeing my own boyfriend being ripped in half by a saw.

"Blood! Blood! Who's blood is that, Ash?" Emily asks, pointing to Ashley's blood-soaked clothes. I look up at her with a cold stare.

"Josh's. It's Josh's blood." I say, coldly. They look at me like I'm some fucking crazy person. Which, I understand why.

"Are you okay?" Matt asks, afraid to touch Ash. What a dumb fucking question. Of course she's not okay!

"Chris, what happened?" Emily asks, trying to figure out what happened. Though, I'm not so sure she'd want to know the truth. It was an ugly truth.

"J-josh..." Chris tries to spit out. He's breathing heavily and he's trying to keep holding Ash to keep her as calm as he can.

"Josh what, dude?" Matt asks, trying to find out what the fuck is going on. Again, I don't blame him.

"He's dead!" Chris says, freaking out again. I just stand there, frozen like a statue. I saw Emily look at me like I'm crazy, why would I be so calm and them be so scared. It made the whole thing sketchy.

Matt starts to ask even more questions, but Chris manages to answer them all. So, I continue to stay completely silent.

"We're gonna figure this out, man." Matt says, trying to calm Chris and Ash down. Emily just looks at me, and I look down at the ground. I was thinking about Josh and how I'm going to hate myself forever knowing that I never told him the secret.

I don't if I should tell someone to get it off my chest...I just wanted to go home. I didn't want to be here anymore. All of this was too much for anyone to handle.

"Get everyone together. But if there's a maniac running around, I think we mess to get some help too, right? Not just wait around?" Emily suggests, wanting to call the police. Would they even believe us? Would they arrest Chris for choosing to kill Josh? So many questions that I had absolutely no answer to.

I just wanted to go home...


	6. Dread

Matt, Emily, and myself were all headed to the cable car station. We needed to get somebody to help us. We thought by leaving to get some policemen to help us, it'd be better for everyone. It'd be safer, at least.

As we were walking to the cable car station, there was an awful chilly breeze in the air. It made me think of Hannah and Beth and how cold they must have been getting lost in these woods. It was absolutely freezing.

"Look! An axe!" I hear Matt say cheerfully, "I feel better with an axe." I nod and look up from my snowy boots. It was quite strange finding an axe in a door to the cable car station.

We were at the cable car station, but something seemed off. There was an axe in the door to the station, the lights were off and all of it didn't seem right.

Em and I try to get the door to open, but it doesn't seem to budge. We needed to get Matt to knock the door down with the axe.

"Well break the door down, will ya?" Emily suggests, frustrated at the whole situation. This was all really weird and sad and just plain terrible.

"Woah, wait a second. If we start smashing shit down, he's gonna hear us." Matt states, and he's right. But what else could we do at this point? We needed to get into the cable car station.

"You got any better suggestions?" Emily asks him, and Matt immediately re-scans the area to look for another way in. It seemed to be getting colder by the minuet. I just wanted to be warm for a minuet.

"A window!" Matt says, cheerfully pointing at a window just to the right of where we were currently standing. We both follow Matt to the location.

"That's great Matt. I can just about fit my lip balm through that little slot!" She wasn't wrong, it was a very petite slot. I wasn't sure if I could even fit through it. We both knew that Matt definitely couldn't.

"Okay...fine. Here goes." Matt sighs and marches over to the door and prepares to knock it down. For some reason, he decided that now is a wonderful time for a pep talk. Really?

"Just do it!" Enily urges Matt, slightly pushing him. I giggle at the sight. How ironic.

After three swings of the axe, Matt was able to get us into the cable car station. However, it was nearly completely destroyed and a total mess. It looked like someone had came in and just threw things everywhere.

To my left, there were bags scattered all around the floor. Emily was trying to see where the cable car was, Matt was looking alongside her to find a way to get to it. It looked over ten feet away from us. Just far enough out of our reach. Someone must have planned this...

"We were here just a few hours ago, this must have just happened!" Emily states, she looks around with me. Who would have done this? What's the point of all of this?

"What the fuck is going on around here?" Matt asks us, as if we knew. We're all confused and frustrated. We were trapped on the mountain. No way out.

I wander into the inside of the station and find a map of the whole mountain. At the very top was a place called a 'sanatorium' and then just slightly southeast was a fire tower. That's it!

"No keys, no cable car. Looks like we're going to have to find another way..." Matt says, and I smile. They both look at me like I'm crazy, but I walk over to the side to show the map. I point right at the fire tower and they both smile back. Maybe we weren't doomed.

"Maybe it has a radio or something! I mean, it would, wouldn't it?" Emily asks and I agree. It was a good idea. There should be someone who works for the park ranger service or something to help us out.

Matt agrees with the plan, and we begin to head around the cable car station. Emily takes the lead followed my me, and then Matt. We walk carefully around the edge, but there's a long drop to the bottom of the mountain. One wrong move, and you're dead.

I see Emily beginning to slip, so I immediately grab a hold of her and pull back up. We exchange grateful smile and then get off the edge.

"Holy cannoli, thank God that's over!" Emily says, resting her hands on her knees. I laugh and so the same thing.

"You got that right." I laugh again, tired from the stress of the morning. It's not even three in the morning yet, but a lot of shit has already gone down.

We continue up the path to the fire tower. The whole time I was shaking. Not from the cold, but from the sheer terror of the unknown. I had no idea what was going to happen, but with Josh's death and the secret, I was just terrified and my vicious thoughts were not helping whatsoever.

We keep going but, we start to see no more path ahead. It's just a cliff. I sigh, as we were going to have to turn around and find another path to follow. I was tired, and I know they were too. I just wanted to find a place to stay and just sleep.

I look down and spot half of a sign that once read 'DANGER: CLIFF.' Matt quickly tells us both to watch where we walk. Yeah, I'd rather not spend the night falling off of a snowy cliff to my death. But thanks for the concern, Matt.

We start to walk away from the cliff but are stopped by a very loud, nonhuman scream. It sounded really high-pitched but also very low in tone. It somehow sounded similar. The scream was accompanied by the sound of a horde of deer coming right at us. There were a shit ton of them, too.

I look at Matt, who is the only person with any sort of weapon on them. I'm not so sure we should attack the horde, but I'm also not sure about just letting them trample us into the ground and off the cliff top. Either choice seemed unsafe.

"Jesus! Shit!" Emily says, trying to get as far away from the horde as possible without falling to her death. I do the same.

"Oh, damn." Matt mumbles under his breath. Whatever choice he makes, I hope it's the right one because if not...we're all going to die tonight.


	7. Vengeance

The deer were stalking us like we were food. My legs were quivering and my heart was beating like a drum. Everything was happening way too fast.

"Matt...what are you going to do?" Emily says, breathing heavily. We were both terrified and extremely worried about the whole situation. Leaving me wishing I hadn't come back up here after last year.

"Stay calm, relax. They're just deer." Matt attempts to calm us both down. I manage to get myself and my emotions under control. Emily, however, isn't able to do that as easily.

"N-no, they're going to hurt us." Emily says, still breathing heavily and holding herself to keep warm. It was possibly one of the coldest nights in Michigan so it's no wonder why the weather is so bad tonight. Plus, it doesn't help that we are on a huge mountain hundred of feet off the regular ground.

Matt takes control of the situation and begins to slowly maneuver through the horde. I watch very carefully as Em and I follow suit right behind him. There was one deer in the center who was just looking directly at Matt. I didn't know if he was going to just keep walking past it, or if he was going to hit it. I hoped that he would just leave it alone and keep going towards the fire tower. But, you can't always get what you want.

He swings at the innocent creature and the horde immediately goes after him. Pushing him closer and closer towards the edge until he finally falls off the cliff and plummets to the ground. Emily and I hear an unsettling crunch, and we start to run away from the horde. We both, somehow, made it out of there completely unscathed. Matt, no so much.

I could see how upset Emily was at the whole situation, but we had to keep going if we were going to get anything done. So, we continued our journey to the fire tower.

"So..." Emily breaks the awkward silence after ten minuets of walking, "if we do manage to get someone on the radio, we tell them we need help. Right?" I look over at her, and nod. Is that even a question? Of course! That's literally the reason we're headed up the mountain.

"Yes." I say, I see that we're getting closer to the tower. So, I try to think very positive thoughts and give off a positive vibe.

"What do we do while we wait?" Emily asks me, and I think about it for a second. What is the best option? We can't just stay in the tower forever. We have to leave at some point.

"We could head back to the lodge and get everyone together." I suggest, but Emily completely disagrees. This chick is too damn hard to deal with. I can't help but think about Matt and Josh. They didn't deserve to die like they did. It was horrible and cruel.

"Oh God, not the lodge. Shouldn't we just stay here in case whoever it is needs to get back in touch with us?" I just keep walking, because I don't know the answer. I don't know how to solve my own problem; the secret.

"Hey, are you listening to me? What's going on with you, Bel?" Emily asks me, and I look at her. I thought about just smiling and brushing it off, but it was something that I knew that people would find out sooner or later. But, I wasn't ready for that yet.

"Yeah, sorry. Just...thinking about Josh." I say, as we finally reach the tower. Before we can get too close, a bright light shines down from above us. It was so bright, I could feel some heat coming off of it. It was radiating.

"Ugh, that's freaking bright!" Emily yells, trying to shield her eyes from the blinding light. I attempt at doing the same thing.

"It's a motion sensor light, I think. Or...I hope." I say, looking at her. We start to walk towards the tower and begin the climb up. It was a very long, drawn out climb. The higher up we got, the more windy and chilly it got.

"Why did it get so chilly all of a sudden?" Emily asks me, as we finish climbing the last ladder. I sigh and brush the snow off of myself and then think of an answer.

"I think it's because we're almost inside. Just keep going!" I say, as I climb inside the tower. It was less chilly inside, but I was still freezing. I see the radio and attempt at turning it on, but it seems that the power is turned off. Meaning there might be a power switch around somewhere.

"No power. We should look for a switch." I say, as I see a double locker and open it. I look inside and find Hannah's missing poster. The one that they never hung up anywhere. I look over to my right, and there is a printer on the table. I press it to see if it would work, and surprisingly...it did.

"I got the power back on! Score one for Emily and Isabella!" She cheers happily, it was nice to see her smiling again.

I look back at the printer and get the paper that was printing before, and it was Beth's missing poster. I observe it and put it back into the printer.

"I'm sorry they're both missing..." Emily states, staring at the poster with a gloomy look on her face. I could tell that she was genuinely upset about the twins' disappearance.

Emily walks towards the radio and begins to make contact with some Blackwood County Park Ranger Service. I didn't really focus too much on the conversation, but the part I did hear...wasn't a very satisfying one.

"What? When? How long?" Emily asks the man, clearly angry and a bit frustrated with him. I could understand why. He couldn't quite understand her because of the weather and the signal.

"Dawn, at the earliest. Not until dawn, over." I was shocked. Stunned. What the fuck? We were stuck up on a mountain with some freak after us and they want us to just somehow 'survive' until dawn? Josh and Matt are already dead and no telling who else is by now.

I look at Em and we both share a moment of silence. I guess we were trying to figure out a new plan. We were going to have to go back to the lodge. What if they came and something happens? We needed to rally up the rest of the crew. Before I could even speak, the motion sensor had been triggered and I could hear what sounded like the polls that holds the tower in place were being snapped and broken.

"He's coming for me!" Emily screams and hugs herself again. Totally losing her composure completely. She's a mess and is freaking the fuck out.

The tower become unsteady and starts to fall over. I grab ahold of the opposite side of the tower and manage to hang on the edge. Emily falls onto the side going into what looks like a mine or something.

"Hang on tight, Em!" I scream down to her, worriedly. She screams and dodges the radio and television coming right at her, all lit on fire.

"FUCK ME!" Emily cries out, as she lands harshly on the very tip edge of the tower. I slowly make my way over to her, and try not to make the tower slip any farther into the mines.

"BELLA! GET ME OUT OF HERE! PLEASE!" She continues to yell, but all it's doing is stressing us both out.

"Emily, I need to breathe and calm down. Okay? Everything is going to be okay." I say, trying to get her to calm down so that she can listen to my instructions.

"Stay calm? How the FUCK do you expect me to stay calm?" She yells at me again, but I don't get upset. I focus on getting us both out of the situation alive.

"I need to carefully turn around and face the wood walkway behind you. We're going to jump, okay? I'm going to go first and then I'll help you up." I suggest, getting ready to jump, but right as I land, the whole tower collapses into the mine.

"EMILY!" I yell down at her, and I start crying. I had gotten Emily killed. I wanted tonight to be over. But, it was far from over. The night was just getting started.


	8. Violence

It was a long way back to the lodge, but I had decided that it would be worth it. I knew that it wasn't good being out here in the woods, Hannah and Beth only proved that to be true.

I keep walking up the long, snowy pathways. It was a good thirty minutes of complete silence other than the occasional bird chirp or stick crunching under my feet. I tried to stay relatively quiet in case anyone was trying to find me.

I wasn't trying to get myself murdered tonight. Besides, I had to take care of the secret with everything in me. I wanted to tell someone so bad, it was like having a bad migraine; it just won't go away no matter what you do. No matter how much of an inconvenience it is, it's still there.

Without Josh in the picture, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I wasn't really sure before, but now? Now I'm totally lost in myself. I don't have any idea what the hell I'm going to do.

Before too much longer, I was right in front of the lodge. I run up to the door and knock as hard as I can. I wanted to feel the warmth of the couch and blankets again. I wanted something to drink and I wanted to cuddle up by the fire. I wanted to sleep.

"Guys! Are you in there? It's me, Bella! Can you let me in?" I asks them, still knocking on the door. To my surprise, the least expected person opens the door for me; Josh.

"J-josh? I thought you...died. What?" I was confused, I thought that I was seeing things. I literally watched him get torn to shreds. How the hell is he up and walking around?

"It was a prank." He says so calmly, like it was something normal. I push past him, and close the door behind me. I headed straight for the fire and instantly grabbed a blanket to wrap myself in.

"A prank? You do realize that a prank got both your sisters killed? Matt and Emily are dead!" I yell, still standing by the fire. It was so warm, it actually made me feel safe.

"Wait, what? They're dead? How?" Sam walks in, dressed in a red jacket and grey leggings. I look at her and hug her so tightly. I thought that I might not ever see her again.

"Matt...fell off a cliff. And Emily, she fell into the mines when we were at the fire tower. We were trying to get in contact with people and get us out of here. But, something knocked the tower over and it collapsed into the mines." I say, still very upset and frustrated at what had just a happened.

Mike, Ashley, and Chris walk in and sit down beside us on the couch. I look over and they all seem to be okay, Ash is still covered in Josh's fake blood.

"What do you mean knock the tower over? What the hell happened?" Mike asks me, and I look him up and down. He's covered in dirt and looks like literal shit. There's no telling what he's been through tonight.

"Something went around and broke the columns that hold up the tower steady. It caused the whole damn tower to fall over into the mines." I explain and they all look at me shocked to hear this. What I really needed to do was talk to Josh. Privately.

"We need to get you out of here." Mike and Chris stand up and walk towards Josh. Who is being silent and not causing any more trouble. I stand up and get in front of Josh.

"Wait. I need to talk to him. Alone. It's urgent." I say, and I help Josh up. He smiles at me, and we walk into the kitchen. Away from everyone else.

"So what's going on? What's so urgent?" Josh asks, beginning to look seriously concerned and confused.

"I need you to know something before it's too late. A secret." I tell him, he holds my hand and I look him in the eyes.

"Okay, so what is it?" He asks me, and I just look at him for a minuet. His last moments being irresponsible and selfish.

"I-I don't know how to say this...but I'm pregnant." I spit out at him. It felt great to get the secret off of my chest for holding it in so long. I wanted him to know in case one of us didn't make it through until dawn. I'd never forgive myself if I had let that happen.

I could tell that everyone was eavesdropping because I heard them all shuffle away after what I had said. I waited to see what Josh had to say and he looked shocked. Almost completely frozen.

"Are you sure? Like 100% sure?" He asks, and I start to get even more worried about the future. Does he even want this baby?

"Yes, I'm sure. Do you want this?" I ask him, waiting for the answer I've been trying to get all weekend.

"Want what?" He asks me, wondering what I'm talking about now. We've always been a great couple. We've only had one fight the whole three years we'd been together. I loved him so much, and I had hoped he loved me the same way.

"This relationship, me, the baby?" I ask him, and he only grasps my hands tighter. Confused, I look down and he's smiling at me.

"Of course I do. Bella, I love you so much. You're all I want. This baby is just another part of you that I get to love." He responds. I couldn't believe it. It was way better than I had ever hoped. We leaned in and kissed. I made sure that it was one hell of a kiss, I didn't know if it'd be our last.

I walk out of the kitchen and into the living room, and laugh at all of them trying to make small talk.

"Wow, you guys are great spies, you know that?" I laugh, and they laugh back. I was happy, but there was so much still going on. I wasn't sure what was coming at us next.

"I'm so happy for you two. My bestie is preggers!" Sam says, standing up and giving me another huge hug. She squeezes me so tight, I can't breathe.

"Can't. Breathe!" I say, and she lets go. I laugh at her, and sit back down on the couch.

"So...what's next?" I say, and they all look over at me. I don't know what was going to happen until dawn. There was about three hours left. Chris stands up again tries to leave the room but a loud, feminine scream is heard. A scream that sounds very familiar.

The scream was coming from...

"EMILY!" I yell back, shocked to see that she was still alive. How? I have no fucking idea. She must have made it out of the mines alone. Damn, a lot can happen in seven hours, huh?


	9. Revelation

"LET ME IN! LET ME IN!" We all hear Emily scream bloody murder. I don't think I've ever seen Em so scared in my entire life. I knew something had to have scared the total shit out of her for her to totally freak out like that.

"Let her in! Quick!" Chris says, running to open the door for her. She quickly runs inside, but falls on the floor like she's trying to crawl away from something. She's breathing really loudly and is clearly quite terrified.

"Shut the door, OH MY GOD! SHUT THAT GODDAMN DOOR!" Emily screams, scrambling away from the door entirely. She stands up and runs into the living room. We're all confused, concerned, and extremely worried. Not just about Em, but particularly why Emily is so scared.

"Something's out there..." Emily says, as Ashley and Sam help her sit down on the couch. Emily looked like she had walked through the pits of hell. She was very dirty, covered in some kind of black substance and she was shivering.

"Are you okay?" Chris asks her, attempting to take control of the situation and calm Emily down. Keeping us all calm and collected was going to help us all stay alive. If we started to lose our shit, we'd get killed by whatever the hell is out there.

"I'm fine. I don't feel anything. I just need to calm down. That thing was moving so damn fast!" Emily explains, and I know what she's talking about. The thing that knocked the tower into the mines. She must have been chased back to the lodge.

"What was?" Chris asks, trying to figure out what she was talking about. They probably thought it was one of Josh's pranks, but it wasn't. It was real.

"I just had to get away." Emily says, trying to cool down but also get warm from it being literally below zero outside. I sat in between Ashley and Sam, when I heard Mike enter the room.

"Away from what?" Sam asks her. I already knew the answer to that question. I didn't know what the creature really was, but I knew enough. It was lethal.

"Listen, you can relax. Josh was just messing with us, okay?" Sam tries to keep Emily's emotions at bay, but fails. She thinks it's Josh? Josh can't run that fast, that's for damn sure.

"No, you're not listening to her. What we saw out there, was inhuman..." I say, trying to explain what Emily couldn't spit out herself. They looked at me funny, like I was lying. Emily knew that I was telling the truth.

"So, what happened to Matt? Is he okay?" Chris asks us, but we just glance at each other sadly. Matt didn't make it long enough to see anything other than the deer.

"No, he didn't make it." Emily says, looking up at Chris. And I can see the pain on everyone's face in the room. They're all distraught about the entire thing.

Everyone keeps asking the same, stupid question and I totally zone out. They just didn't understand, and they wouldn't be able to understand until they saw that thing for themselves.

And with that, there was a loud, abrupt knock on the lodge door. Making me jump out of my skin. Who the hell would knock on the door at this hour?

"Who the fuck can that be?" Mike whispers amongst us all. It's like he could read my mind in that moment. There was no telling who it could be...or what it could be.

"Jess?" Chris suggests as a valid answer to us all, but Mike quickly turns it down. So Jessica was dead, too? Goddamn.

"Sorry, man. But who is it?" Chris asks, Mike starts to walk towards the door and gets out a gun for protection. We didn't know who or what was lurking just outside that lodge door.

It looked like Chris and Mike were arguing for a second, but then Mike took the gun and Chris went for the doorknob. Within seconds, a tall man came inside and walked towards the fireplace.

I was completely still and silent. He didn't really look like he wanted to hurt us, but he did have what looks like a flamethrower on him along with a bag of God knows what. He also was dressed very warmly, wearing several layers of clothing to protect himself from the harsh winter weather.

"Let me say what I came to say." He says, and stops in front of the fireplace. I didn't really know what to do, so I gripped onto Josh's hand as tight as I could. Not meaning to actually hurt him.

"I'm here to tell you what you're up against being back on this mountain. You should never have returned. I don't know why you did after what happened last year." The strange man states. What did he mean by what happened last year? How could he know what happened?

"You mean with Hannah and Beth?" Ashley asks, trying to find answers for all the questions running around in all of our heads.

"Yeah, how could you know without being involved-" Chris says as Sam immediately cuts him off. I look over at Sam, curiously.

"Or responsible." Sam implies. She had a good point. Not many people knew the whole story of what happened that night. Sure, it was public knowledge that they had been missing for a year, but nobody else knew exactly how or why. So, how the fuck did he know?

"You hold onto your horses! I don't take kindly to you kids coming up here to my mountain." The man says, getting flustered and agitated. I could tell he didn't want us killed, because he probably would have already done it by now.

"Your mountain? I'm sure the Washington's would be very surprised to hear that." Mike laughs under his breath. He wasn't wrong, they did buy a mountain. The man laughed, and it was very raspy.

"Well, this mountain don't belong to me, it's true. But, it don't belong to the Washington's...this mountain belongs to the Wendigo." He says, we all look at each other. Maybe that's what killed Jess.

"Who?" Chris laughs at the man, who still has a stone cold look on his face. He is telling the truth, no matter how much we don't want to believe it. At least, I believed him.

"What the hell's a Wendigo?" Mike asks, looking into the little circle we had formed, unknowingly. We all look at each other and Sam finally speaks up.

"Let's hear him out." I look back over at the guy and he doesn't seem to want to be wasting so much time on bullshit.

"Now I'm only gonna tell you this once. It doesn't matter to me if you believe it or not. I've got reasons I want to...get it off my chest." He says, like he's been keeping a dark secret for far too long. I know that exact feeling.

"See? I told you! He's guilty as shit. Guilty of something!" Mike accused the man, but the man totally ignore him and keeps on talking. Not that I minded at all, Mike does like to talk a lot of shit.

"There is a curse that dwells in these mountains. Should any man or woman resort to cannibalism in these woods, the spirit of the Wendigo shall be unleashed." The man finishes. I look over at Mike who turns as white as a sheet and he looks like he had just seen a ghost.

"You're going to need to find somewhere safe." He says, suggesting a call to action. Which, I totally agree with as I would rather not die tonight.

"The basement might be okay..." Sam suggests to all of us and I nod my head in agreement. It was settled then.

"Okay. Get down there. All of you. And wait." He demands, I realize he's only telling us to do this for our own safety. For some damn reason, I'm the only person who understands that's his motive.

"What? Why? For how long?" Sam asks, the question that I heard not even an hour ago from Emily.

"Until dawn." I answer her, as I heard the same words come out of the radio earlier. They had told us to wait until morning so they could fly a helicopter down to get us all. That is, if we all survive until then.

"Let's just get down there." I say, marching towards the basement, "Well, shit guys! Do you want to survive or not?" After that, they all follow Josh and I down to the basement. However, the stranger isn't behind any of us. He's...gone.

"Chris, what happened to the flamethrower guy?" Sam asks, as he is no longer following us. He must have left us as we went down the stairs.

"These all the doors?" Mike asks, walking quickly around the basement to find another way out. We're safe down here, why the hell does he want to leave?

"What are you looking for?" Sam asks him, and he just continues to pace around the room. Will you stop that shit?

"Another way out." He says, as he continues his search. I just roll my eyes at him.

"Mike, we just got here. Okay? Can you please just sit down and breathe for a minuet? And please, for the love of God, stop fucking pacing!" I yell at Mike. I didn't know if it was the pregnancy or just Mike being his usual self that had me so frustrated and miserably angry.

"Oh yeah? And stay here wrapped up like a little present with a bow on top for that thing to come tear us apart on Christmas morning?" Mike rants, although it doesn't do anything for anyone. He walks over to the security cameras and continues to look for another way out of the basement. Even though he's missing two of his fingers, he's still managing to be just as annoying and self-centered as he always was.

"Well, people will come for us in the morning. We just have to stay here, until dawn." Sam tries to make him stay, but he successfully find a way out of the basement.

"Well you can wait. I'm leaving." Mike says, as he begins to walk in that direction again.

"Mike! There's no key for the cable car." Emily explains to him. So even if he did get out of here, he couldn't leave the mountain. He didn't even have a damn key.

"Josh. He's gotta have it." Mike says, walking over to Josh. Josh just gets the keys out of his pocket and hands them right over to him.

"Well...I'm gonna get to the cable car station and I'll get us out of here." He says, as he reassures us all. We already had people coming for us, they just can't get to us for another two hours. If we could just stay out, we could make it out of here alive. But nobody seemed to get that. Why?


	10. Karma

"Em, what is all that?" Sam asks, as she looks over at the stuff in Emily's hands. It looks like a book of some sort, and looks very old and delicate.

"It's that old guy's bag." Emily replies, and continues to search through the bag. Which just so happened to have a map of the entire mountain, mines, and lodge on it.

"Is that a map?" Mike says, anxiously wanting to get his hands on it. He would obviously need it to find his way down the mountain.

"This guys is prepared for anything and everything!" Sam says, helping Emily out with the stuff. Sam starts to pull out the map and look at it. At the very tip top was a sanatorium.

"Wait, what is that?" Sam asks, and Mike immediately answers. Like he's been there before.

"I've been there, it's horrible." Mike says, looking down at the map again. He'd clearly been through hell down there.

"You were?" Sam asks him, looking back at him. His face looked pale, he was covered in dirt and snow and other things. He looked like he wanted to get a shower. Mike nodded and Sam looked as shocked as ever.

"There had been a cave-in in the fifties and I guess these miners got trapped down there. Some of them survived but like...fifteen of them didn't make it. There was even this reporter and I think he figured out there had been some big cover up going on. I found these plans, and they knew the mines were a death trap, but they let the miners keep working anyway. And...I found this chair with dried blood all over the place...like somebody had been tortured." Mike explains. I was actually very intrigued about the whole thing. Who would actually let people work in dangerous conditions like that?

"Can we get back to how we're going to get the fuck out of here please?" Emily says, trying to get everyone back on track.

"He just saying how much weird shit has gone on up here. It's actually pretty interesting too." I say, standing up for Mike. Which, honestly, I never thought I'd have to do.

"What's weird is that there is a tunnel leading from the lodge to the sanatorium, see?" She points to the lines showing tunnels.

"That's how I got back here." Mike says, which totally makes perfect sense. Although, he must have been walking for like an hour since it's like nearly four miles down the mountain.

"Okay...well I'll be back soon. Just...stay here please." Mike says, as he goes for the exit. Off he goes. The plan was for him to go back to the sanatorium and get to the cable car that way, instead of going back upstairs and getting right in the tracks of the Wendigo if it was still up there.

"Well, you heard the man. We're staying put." I say, and walk towards Josh. He gives me a quick hug before we sat together on the bookshelves. I was anxiously waiting for Mike's return. Or if he returns at all...

Ashley and I continued to pass the time by looking through the flamethrower guy's stuff. A lot of it was actually pretty interesting. It talked a lot about the Wendigos and what they can do to people and things. But, what I found next had me shaking to my core.

"Oh no..." Ashley mumbles scarcely, not letting go of her tight grasp on the book she was currently hold in on to.

"What? What is it? What does is say?" Sam gets up and begins to head towards Ash and I. I look at Ashley but she doesn't seem to spit it out. I grab the book from her hands and read what she must have read.

"Oh..." It had hit me like a truck, "If you get bitten by a Wendigo, it doesn't turn you into one. It doesn't do anything...it's not infectious." Everyone in the room looked at me. I look over at Sam and she takes the book out of my hands instantly.

"Shit..." Sam says under her breath, breathing heavily and pacing around the room. I knew that if Mike got bit, he might just kill himself to stop himself from turning. But Mike also didn't know that a bite wasn't infectious. Someone had to tell him that before he did something stupid.

"We've gotta get to Mike." Sam says, looking for the exit that Mike had just went through not fifteen minuets ago.

Sam sat the book on the table and everyone seemed to follow her. Except Josh and I. They all stop as I speak.

"I can't leave here, okay? I'm not risking my baby, I have to stay here. Just...just come back safe. Please." I say, hugging Sam. I was hoping that it wouldn't be the last time I'd see her. I knew that here was a chance she wouldn't make it. Along with Ashley and Chris. At least they'd be in a group and not get separated.

"Are you sure you want to stay?" Josh asks me, I can tell he's concerned about the baby. I also can see that he's concerned about our safety. If we do stay in one place for too long, it could be the end for the both of us. Instead, we just sit in the basement and find something to pass the time with. And let me tell you, we did.

"So, should we think about baby names?" Josh asks me, still holding my hand. I smile, and think of what the gender might be. I had always hoped to have a daughter to dress up and do hair with. Some things I just wanted to do.

"We can. But you know that I'm one step ahead of you, right?" I say, and giggle as I do. The minuets after the test had read positive, I had thought i all of those things.

"If its a boy...Jude. I've always like that name, and of course The Beatles song." I laugh, as they were and always will be my favorite band. It's such a shame they ever split up. Their music was truly legendary.

"You just want to name him that so you can yell 'HEY JUDE' at the kid!" Josh defends, but we end up laughing about the truth of it. It would be quite fun to yell that at the top of my lungs. What would the neighbors think?

"And if it's a girl?" I ask him, and he looks down at his hands. I'm not sure what he's thinking about, but his whole demeanor changed the second I had said that.

"Bethany or maybe Hayden." He says, looking deep into my eyes. It was like I could feel his heartache for his sisters. It'd be an honor to name them after someone who was so prominent in our lives.

"I love it. And I love you." I speak softly as Josh leans in. I lean in, feeling his hand hold my head to pull my face closer to his. When our lips finally touch, the feeling of support and pure lust surges through my entire body. Leaving me wanting more.

"I love you too." He says, leaving the kiss to catch a breath of air. I laughed at him and he kissed me again. If this is what peace feels like, I don't think I ever want to give that up.


	11. Resolution

Josh and I were deep within a kiss when we heard loud footsteps coming from down the hall and we were interrupted by Emily's familiar high-pitched scream.

"What was that?" Josh asks me, looking around us for any sigh of them coming back. It had been over an hour. Josh and I easily passed the time simply by just talking and well...kissing.

"More like who was it?" I add, looking around the corner and seeing Ashley, Chris, and Emily running away from something. Running away from...

"WENDIGO! RUN!" Emily yells at us, and speeds by us. I feel Josh grip my hand tightly and we both pick up the pace and race up the stairs to the living room.

I see Sam run behind us and close the door that the Wendigos were chasing us through in the movie room. All of us kept our viciously fast pace and were stopped abruptly in the living room.

We were stopped instantly when we saw a Wendigo just hanging on the chandelier as if that was just a casual occurrence.

"Don't fucking move. Don't fucking move a muscle..." I hear Mike whisper to Sam, who is the closest to the Wendigos. She still had her headlight on, and it's a wonder that the Wendigos didn't pick up such a bright object with their vision.

The Wendigo screams and twitches in its own movement. The scream pierced my ear and nearly made me sick. The Wendigos skin was very white and it looked as if their skin was thick and stretched across their bones tightly.

The teeth looked sharp, almost like a great white shark. Their eyes were very sunken and the light in them had vanished completely. I could tell they were once human, as they still shared some human characteristics. But, they were very inhuman. They were monsters.

Two more Wendigos enter the room from a lower floor and come towards the main Wendigo hanging from the chandelier. The moved quickly, and would have very fragile but deadly motions. The two more Wendigos locked eyes with the main Wendigo and looked as if they wanted to fight it.

One of the two began fighting the other and jumped at each other, only for one of them to be smashed into the staircase, hard. Not hard, harder. Like being smashed by a massive semi.

One of the Wendigos was then thrown entirely across the room. Landing in the fireplace, breaking one of the gas pipes. The gas pipe then began to leak gas into the air fast.

I see Mike glance between the gas pipe, the lightbulb setup, and the light switch right by the front door. Sam also notices Mike's plan and nods at us both. Now, we had to find a way to somehow perfectly execute the plan. Or...we're all going to do die.

One of the Wendigos had gotten onto the railing of the top floor and hurled towards the other Wendigo. They spun around the several times, but the main Wendigo had a very robust grip on the other, and decapitated the other. I held my breath for a moment. These fuckers are strong.

Sam begins to walk backwards towards the door, but the floor of the lodge had other plans. It squeaked beneath her feet and the Wendigo immediately took note. It got down from the chandelier and walked right towards her, screaming directly in her face.

As Sam was being stalked, I look over at Mike and he's already made his way to the light bulb setup and had began to break the lightbulb, letting the filament be open.

I look behind me, and see Chris run outside of the lodge, making it to safety. But, the Wendigo heard Mike break the light bulb and began to slowly walk towards him.

"HEY!" Sam yells, trying to save Mike's life. The Wendigo yells and marches towards Sam leaving Mike to start to walk backwards and quietly and as quickly as he can. Emily then makes her way out of the lodge, joining with Chris.

Sam stays completely frozen as the Wendigo hovers over her. I'm sure she must have been internally screaming to get away. But, she stayed silent and still. Just like the flamethrower guy had said in his journal. If you're still, they can't see you.

The Wendigo walks away from Sam and heads towards Josh and I. I feel my heartbeat in my fingertips, and it's ringing in my ears. I try to breathe more quietly and I do so successfully.

Sam again saves our lives and yells to the Wendigo and she hides behind the wall of the lodge. Making the Wendigo scream right in her face again. Ashley slips outside of the lodge to join the others.

In the distance, I could hear a helicopter coming for us. I had all my hope restored in surviving. We just had to burn the house down with the Wendigo inside.

Sam continues to hide in another location, allowing for Mike, myself and Josh to run outside of the lodge. All she had to do was get to that switch. We were all so close to surviving. I could taste it.

After a couple seconds of silence, I hear Sam's footsteps get closer and closer and then she flips the switch. The entire lodge lights on fire, killing the Wendigos simultaneously and ejecting Sam from the porch, causing her to land on the snow.

I ran over to her to help her up, "Are you okay?" I checked her out to make sure she didn't have any injuries and she just laughs. Why the fuck is she laughing?

"Okay? I'm more than okay. I'm alive! We all are!" Sam says cheering, and pulling everybody into a hug. We had all survived...other than Jessica and Matt. If only I had done something more to save them. If only I had done something to save Hannah and Beth that night. If only...

Fire still leaked from all the windows and doors. I could feel the heat from the fire from over twenty feet away. But, the burn was good.

It felt good to see the light of day again. The sun had began to rise and you could see the horizon over the snow covered hills. I had never been more thankful for a sunrise in my entire life.

Today was going to be a good one. I was going to make sure of it.


	12. The Aftermath

The helicopter had picked all of us up from the lodge and taken us back to the police station to get our statements on what happened at the lodge and to get interviewed about everything that happened.

We all exchanged glances, we were all together and that was safest. We didn't speak much, we didn't know what to say. The entire flight was nearly silent.

We had just landed and were taken into the station. We were all interviewed one at a time. We had to be silent in the waiting area. I had a lot going through my mind. I look over at Josh and he looks just as nervous as I do. How were we going to explain the Wendigos? Or what happened to Jessica?

"Isabella Gavins." The officer said to me, as he held the door open to the interrogation room. I got up from my chair and went in the room. It was quite small and only a had a table and two chairs.

"Have a seat, miss." The officer said to me, as he sat down as well. He started with me telling him why we were going back to the lodge after the twins' disappearance. I told him everything that had happened to me since I gotten to the lodge, avoiding the Wendigo situation.

"So, can you tell us what happened to the lodge?" He asks, getting out a yellow notepad.

"Well, the gas pipe had been broken and we turn the lights on and it caused the whole thing to just burn up." I answer as honestly as I can, trying to avoid bringing up the Wendigos.

"What caused the pipe to break?" He asks, writing something down on his notepad.

"Something had fallen on it, and it started to release gas into the air." It wasn't a lie. It happened like that.

"So, we got a distress signal from a girl named Emily. She said you were there with her in the fire tower. Is this true?" The man asked me, giving me a stern look.

"Yes. We had went up there because Josh had played a prank on Chris and Ashley. We thought Josh was killed by a maniac and so we went to the tower to get some help." I reply, feeling guilty for what happened with Matt. I wonder if Emily told them...

"Can you tell us what happened to your friend, Matt?" I swallow deeply. I didn't want to have to relive the moment. It was too graphic and painful.

"We were headed to the tower and a horde of deer came at us, nearly sending us all off the cliff top. Matt hit one of the deer and the deer pushed him off the cliff. He died from the fall." I gulp, getting goosebumps on my arms just talking about it.

"Okay..." He says, writing something else down on his notepad.

"Can you tell me what the prank was on Chris and Ashley?" He asks me, getting his pen ready.

"It was like a scene from saw. Ashley and Josh were tied up and Chris was forced to choose between Ashley or Josh." I say, not wanting to reveal the 'deadly' decision that Chris had to make.

"Who did he chose to kill?" The officer asked me, looking me in the eye.

"Josh..." I say, looking down at my hands. I remember how it felt to lose him. I hope that I'll never have to experience that ever again.

"I see." The officer says as he writes it down on his handy dandy notebook.

"Do you know anything about this man?" The officer says, holding up a photograph of the flamethrower guy. Only, in the picture he looks much younger, and with less facial hair and scars.

"Yes. He helped us get to safety." I said, analyzing the picture of the man who had saved our lives. I was so grateful that he gave me the knowledge to survive.

"Get to safety? From what? Josh?" The man asks, looking slightly confused.

"No. You see, the mountain has this...thing that lurks behind the trees. It doesn't matter if you think I'm lying about this. You need to go into the mines. You need to look into the Sanatorium. There's some crazy shit going down on the mountain." I speak, the horrors of them both coming into mind. What Emily and Mike had been through...was awful.

"What's in the sanatorium, Isabella?" The man asks me, sitting up in his seat. He looked intrigued by what I had said and curious to hear more.

"Horrible things. Things I wish I could unsee. Just...ask Mike. He's seen it. He was in it. Twice." I say, revealing the truth. But, not too much.

"Okay...we're done here. You may go home now." The officer says, writing the last note down. And stops me just before I grab the doorknob.

"And please, take care of yourself and your boyfriend." I smile and turn the door handle. I walk down the long hallway to the waiting room.

Ashley and Chris were nearly asleep, cuddling each other. Mike was sitting next to Emily, they were hugging. Sam was next to Josh, and that's exactly where I went.

"How'd it go?" Sam asks, as everyone else had already been interviewed. I nod and wake everyone up. It was definitely time to go home. Get some rest. Hell, I'd like to take a shower too. Finally, home.


	13. Moving On

It had been several months since what happened at the lodge. Josh and I were still together, Chris and Ash finally decided to get together as a couple after years of hiding their feelings for one another. Sam was still adventuring and being as courageous as she always was. Mike and Emily rekindled their relationship, as Jessica and Matt had passed on. Things were okay, people were okay, I was okay. Or, well, sort of.

"I feel so fat. But I really want that ice cream." I say, sitting at the coffee shop with Josh, Mike, Emily, Sam, Chris, and Ashley.

"So you go get that ice cream!" Emily says, chanting to me. I laugh at her, but I really am uncomfortable. Being eight months pregnant wasn't very fun.

"I thought pregnancy was beautiful. Turns out it's just back pain and having to pee literally every five damn minutes!" I say, moving around in my seat.

"Well, to me you're one gorgeous woman. Too bad you have a fiancé." Josh says, bring me some ice cream. But, I was confused. Fiancé? He hasn't proposed?

"W-what?" I say, not believing my eyes. Josh gets down on one knee, I look around and everyone had their eyes on me. This was so special.

"Bella, we've been together for a very long time and we've known each other for as long as I can remember. But, that doesn't change how much my love changes for you each and every day. Bella, I love you so much." Josh says to me, holding both of my hands before reaching in his pocket for the ring.

"Well just say it already!" Emily shout excited. I have tears in my eyes. This definitely wasn't expected, but it was so incredibly thoughtful and amazing. It was wonderful having everyone together.

"Isabella Carver, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife? Will you marry me?" Josh asks, gently opening the black box, revealing an absolutely beautiful sterling silver ring with pure diamonds in the center. It was just gorgeous. It shined so much in the light of the sun.

"Joshua Washington, of course I will! The answer will always be yes!" I say, as he slides the ring on my left finger. Everyone in the cafe is cheering for us. In that moment, I was truly happy. I had everything I had every wanted; a loving fiancé, a baby on the way, my supportive family and friends, and of course my big bowl of ice cream.

-ONE WEEK LATER-

"BABE! WE GOTTA GO!" I yell at Josh as he's grabbing the emergency labor kit. I had a bag ready filled with several sets of clothes, diapers, bottles, and other things ready for when I went into labor. I wanted to be as ready as I could be.

"Okay, come on. Let's get you to the hospital!" Josh says excited as we both hop into the car. A strong contraction hits me as I grip onto Josh's sweater he has on.

"Oh my god! This h-hurts like a motherfucker!" I grit my teeth and continue to clench into anything in sight. The pain was just so unbearable.

When we finally do reach the hospital, they conveniently only have one room left and put me in it. I was thankful that I didn't have to be in labor in the waiting room. That was literally my worst nightmare.

I'm not sure how much time had passed, but it seemed to go by very slowly. I heard footsteps enter the room, so I look up and see my doctor.

"Hey, me again. I'm just going to check to see how dilated you are." The doctor checks me, and sighs in clear annoyance. Wow, thanks.

"Still only three centimeters. I'm afraid we're not that ready yet." She tells me and I also sigh at the bad news.

"How long have I been in labor?" I grab Josh's hand for support. The doctor looks at her watch and tells me instantly.

"Nearly seven hours." She says, and I just lay my head down on the pillow. How long does it take for a baby to come out? Was this normal? At that point, I started checking the clocks every so often and it started to drive me crazy.

"TWENTY HOURS?" I sigh, I was getting extremely frustrated. I wanted to get this baby out of me and out right now. I didn't want to hear anymore women yelling and giving birth. I wanted to be them.

"Babe, it's okay. Just calm down. Only a little bit longer." Josh says, trying his best to calm me down.

"Oh yeah? How long?" I laugh, still gripping onto the hospital bed. The pain was like nothing I had ever felt before. It was uncomfortable and unbearable. I wanted it to be over already.

"It's time!" The doctor says, cheerfully. Thank the lord. I thought I'd never get this baby out.

They rolled the bed down to the delivery wing of the hospital and got me set up to push.

"Ms. Carver, I need you to breath. Can you do that?" The doctor asks me, and I only nod back. I wasn't able to speak, like the pain was too loud or something.

"You've got this, just one more push!" Josh coaches me, he's holding my hand in utter support. I'm so grateful for him being here and being with me. He was mine forever.

"It's a girl!" The doctor says, showing me the baby. It was covered in blood and other probably disgusting stuff, but I could tell it looked so much like Josh. The head full of dark hair, the green eyes, the pale skin. She was perfect.

"Hi, Hayden Rose." Josh says, holding her little finger. She was so fragile and I made sure to hold her with a firm grip so I wouldn't drop her.

"Hayden?" I ask, not sure if that was what he actually wanted to name her.

"I like Hayden. It's beautiful." Josh says, brushing a piece of my hair behind my ear. I look down at Hayden and she's nearly asleep. She was warm, wrapped in my arms. I was incredibly happy. There was nothing that could make me any happier than I am right now. Nothing at all.


End file.
